


Safe Message is Not Safe

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Series: SPN Hiatus Writing Challenge 2016 [14]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, John knows everything, not wincest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2016-09-17
Packaged: 2018-08-15 14:20:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8059642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: Dean and Sam, looking for John, find a message from him instead.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SPN Hiatus Writing Challenge Week 16: "I'm trying to crack a safe, be quiet."

Sam turned around. Normally, he was fondly amused by Dean’s antics, even when they were annoying. Right now, though… “I’m trying to crack a safe, be quiet.”

“You be quiet.” Dean went back to his drumming.

Sam shook his head and went back to work. Safecracking was one of those skills he’d hoped never to have to use again, but here he was. The fact that they were breaking into John Winchester’s safe certainly made Sam feel better about it.

Dean thought they might find some clues in this safe. Caleb had said that someone had been sneaking around the safe, someone who didn’t match John’s description. Sam had gotten a good laugh when he saw the shoeprints. His dad was paranoid, and Sam certainly wouldn’t put it past him to wear the wrong size shoes, but there was no way John Winchester could get his feet into shoes that small.

Nothing was missing that Dean could tell in the storage room. Nothing looked disturbed that Sam could see. So they’d decided to crack the safe. Even if there wasn’t anything missing in the safe, maybe there was something in there they could use to find their dad.

Dean stopped drumming. “What’s taking so long, Sam?”

“Can’t hear what I need to hear, thanks to you.” Sam worked as quickly as he could before Dean got bored again.

“Sure, blame me.” Dean picked up a half-melted black candle to play with.

Sam finally caught what he needed. “Got it!” The safe swung open and he peered inside.

“What’s in there?”

“A feather.” Sam reached in and pulled out a long black feather, holding it up for Dean to see. “A folder with some papers inside, and a note.”

“Huh.” Dean took the feather. “What’s the note say?”

“Dean, you should not be reading this. But if you are, then I can’t help you anymore. Can’t protect you. Son, you gotta go get your brother. The folder’s in Sammy code. You gotta know this, because you have to save him. If you can’t…” Sam stared at the note in shock. He couldn’t be reading this right.

“If I can’t save you? Save you from what?” Dean picked up the folder.

“It doesn’t say. The folder might have answers on that. But Dean, listen to this.” Sam’s voice shook a little as he read the last few words. “If you can’t, you’ll have to kill him. Good luck.”

“Kill you? What the hell?” Dean snatched the note out of Sam’s hands. “Dad, this better just be extra motivation. I am not killing my brother.”

“What’s Sammy code?” Sam took the folder and looked in.

Dean chuckled. “Back before you were hunting with us, before you knew about all this shit, if Dad needed to write a message for me that he didn’t want you to read, he’d put it in code. It’s a letter shift code using Sammy as a key. It’ll take me a while to decode all this. If you want to help, I could use it.”

The folder contained everything John Winchester knew about Sam. He knew that Mary had died because a demon was in the house to give Sam his blood – and that the demon succeeded. He knew that the demon planned to put Sam in charge of an army of demons that would sweep across Earth, building up to the release of Lucifer and the beginning of the Apocalypse. That Sam would develop powers, may have already begun, with Sam off at Stanford he couldn’t know. That there were other children like Sam, but Sam was the demon’s favorite and there was a reason for that.

The more they read, the more horrified both Winchesters became. “This is not happening to you, Sam. I won’t let it.”

“How are you gonna stop it? I’ve got demon blood in me, Dean! I’m a whole new level of freak!” Sam scratched at his arm.

Dean grabbed his hand. “I don’t know yet. But it’s not gonna be by putting a bullet in you, I swear.”

“Hang on.” Sam reread what he’d just decoded. “I may have something. Get this: Dad’s source for this? According to him, an angel.”

“An angel? No such thing.”

“Why not? We’ve seen all kinds of things no one believes in, what makes angels so improbable?”

Dean scoffed. “That’s just it. We’ve seen them. We know…”

Sam laughed. “The angel said you’d be skeptical. That’s his feather. His name’s Castiel.”

“Wow. Dad’s lost his mind.” Dean picked up the feather, though, twirling it in his hands. “Angel say anything that might help?”

“Yeah. He said that if you ever wake up to find me missing, to go to Cold Oak, South Dakota.” Sam decoded the next bit and chuckled. “He also said we should go see Bobby Singer, and Dad says that the angel’s full of it and we don’t need Bobby Singer’s help.”

“What do you think?”

Sam thought for a minute. “I think that if Bobby doesn’t shoot us on sight, he’s a smart guy and he might be able to help us find this demon and how to kill it. Find out about this angel, if he’s actually a reliable source. What do you think?

“I think you’re right.” Dean packed up the folder and the feather. “Let’s go see Bobby.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments go in my safe for me to treasure forever!


End file.
